Android: SSH Tunnel is free, open source, and provides one-click SSH tunneling for the entire system or individual apps. The app's official purpose is to allow users in China to bypass what's been called "the Great Firewall," but it can be used by anyone who'd like to ensure private browsing.

SSH Tunnel is extremely simple to use. The entire app consists of one menu page, which itself is broken down into simple sections. You enter the server and port you want your device to connect with and the login information. Then you choose whether you want to use a SOCKS proxy or not, and finally which apps you want using the tunnel (or, if your phone is rooted, you can choose to make the tunnel system-wide). Once you do have SSH Tunnel set up with your preferences, you can save them as a named profile.

To get system-wide tunneling on a rooted phone, you only need to check two options in the app after entering the server information: "Use socks proxy" and "Global proxy." As long as the server you're trying to connect to is set up to receive SSH connections and is able to proxy them, that's all there is to it. The app just works.

SSH tunneling is a term for connecting two systems with a Secure Shell (SSH) session, which allows regular data to be transmitted between them, but wrapped in strong encryption. The data itself isn't encrypted, but because it's being sent in an encrypted "tunnel" from one system to another, it's safe from prying eyes. This can also allow communication that would normally be restricted by firewalls to pass through, since the firewall itself wouldn't know what was being transmitted. It's because of these uses that SSH tunneling is often called "the poor man's VPN." They both get the same basic job done in a pinch, but SSH tunneling is much simpler to implement.

This method isn't just for ensuring privacy, though. When you use an SSH tunnel to send data, it appears to have come from the server on the other end of the tunnel. So, somebody in Europe can use a service like Pandora by tunneling through to a server in America. Flip it the other way, and an American could use a service like Spotify by tunneling to Europe.